Marital status changes in the US

The first chart shows the number of marriages and divorces in the last three decades of the 20th century in the United States. The second chart highlights the percentage of people with different marital status in 1970 and 2000. We will look at the main features of the two charts.

If we look at the first chart, the number of people who get married remained the same level from 1970 to 1980, at 2.5 million, then dropped to 2.3 million in 1990 and 2 million in 2000. While the number of divorces were pretty stable around 1 million during the period, except jumping to 1.4 million in 1980.

From 1970 to 2000, though married people decreased by more than 10 per cent, they still account for the majority of all adult Americans, at 70 per cent and 59 per cent respectively. In comparison, more and more people were never married and divorced during the period, an increase of 5 per cent and 7 per cent respectively.